Good-looking photography is an important aspect of design. Here are a few tips to improve the photos on your webpages.

Before you take the picture, try to place the subject off-centre. This technique will improve the composition. And frame the subject so it occupies the whole picture. Don’t leave too much background.

Always make sure you have plenty of light. If necessary, use additional lighting inside, ensure plenty of natural light or take the photograph outside. Look for the patterns in your picture or juxtaposition different shapes and sizes.

Colour is key in your photographs. Find strong or bold colours and make them the subject of your portrait. This works well with products or close-ups. Choose complimentary colours or one colour that stands out.

Think about why you are taking the photograph. Make sure the image supports the message the words give to your site. Don’t just add photographs to decorate your website.

When you take digital photogaphs for your site, it’s worthwhile investing in software to manipulate the images. You want to be able to resize, crop and save in ‘jpeg’ format (Joint Photgraphic experts Group).

Photoshop is the industry standard, but it’s expensive. Try Photoshop Elements, it’s smaller brother. Or, Fireworks is an excellent tool. Both will allow you to optimise the size of your image, speeding up the download time.

You can buy decent digital cameras for £100 ($200), but if your photography skills just don’t make the grade, you can buy stock photographs from image libraries, like istockphoto for as little as $1.